A leopard is shot with a tranquiliser dart in the residential area of Jyotikuchi in Guwahati, the capital city of the north-eastern state of Assam. Three people were mauled by the leopard after the cat strayed into the city before it was tranquilised by forestry department officials. The full-grown male leopard was wandering through a part of the densely populated city when curious crowds startled the animal, a wildlife official said

A cockchafer beetle, colloquially known as the may bug. Once a serious pest for agriculture and forestry, the beetle was nearly wiped out during the 20th century. Their presence is a sign of low-pollution levels as they do not tolerate pollution well

A mountain gorilla gets drunk on bamboo shoots. Wildlife photographer Andy Rouse had a close encounter with a family of mountain gorillas – and discovered them tipsy from slurping alcoholic sap from fresh bamboo shoots. The family were pictured in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda

The bodies of beached false killer whales on Longbeach in Cape Town, South Africa. Marine scientists euthanased 34 whales following their beaching on 30 May 2009. Of the group of 55, 20 whales were helped back out to sea by members of the public – but 34 returned to the beach and the decision was taken to put them down

Ladybirds crowd a beach chair on Warnemuende beach, Germany, 2009. The harlequin, native to Asia, was introduced to North America and continental Europe as a biological control agent because it eats more pest insects than any other ladybird

A group of common cranes gather in dawn light, on their night-roost on a lake in the German state of Brandenburg, close to Berlin. From September to November tens of thousands of Cranes use the rural area for a stopover during their migration from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to their wintering quarters in Spain. The agricultural plains surrounding Berlin are among the biggest crane roosts in Europe, with several tens of thousands of birds gathering during the peak of migration between September and November

A large flock of flamingos wading in Laguna Colorada, located within the Eduardo Abaroa Andean National Fauna reserve near the border with Chile, in the Uyuni salt flats, Bolivia. The Uyuni salt flats are estimated to contain 10bn tonnes of salt – of which 25,000 tonnes are extracted every year – as well as 100m tonnes of lithium, making it one of the largest global reserves of this mineral, according to officials at the Bolivian Mining Corporation. The salt flats are a major tourist attraction in Bolivia, with around 60,000 tourists visiting them every year to see various types of flamingos, giant cacti, geysers, hot springs, volcanoes and colourful ponds

Pollution and habitat loss are wiping out one of the essential guardians of the world's river systems, it was claimed today. A sixth of all the world's freshwater crab species are now threatened with extinction, according to experts

The Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog, which only became known to scientists four years ago, is one of 1,895 amphibian species that could soon disappear from the wild, says the IUCN Nearly 50,000 animals and plants were surveyed for this year's "red List" of endangered species and 17,291 of them are threatened with extinction. And
here are the ten countries with the most endangered species in them

A male lion in Masai Mara national park in Kenya. Kenyan wildlife officials say the country's 2,000 lions are at grave risk because of recurrent drought and a pesticide that conservationists blame for 76 poisoning deaths of the predator since 2001

Coral off Jarvis Island, one of seven islands strung along the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Parts of three remote and uninhabited Pacific island chains are being set aside by President George Bush to protect them from oil exploration and commercial fishing in what will be the largest marine conservation effort in history

Sea lions swim in front of the Palomino islands, some 8 km (5 miles) from Callao's Port on the central coast of Peru. A colony of 8,000 sea lions lives on desert islands in the bay of Lima. They spend most of the day lounging on rocks or catching fish

A deer and a coyote stare at each other on the edge of the second fairway during a golf tournament in Bend, Oregon. The two animals faced each other for more than a minute until a woman ran at the coyote, scaring it away

An old bull elephant that has strayed from his herd searches for water in the drought-stricken Gourma region of southern Mali. Mali's 350 to 450 desert elephants, the northernmost elephant species of Africa, are accustomed to surviving in harsh drought conditions. But one of their crucial water sources, Lake Banzena, recently dried up, putting the animals at risk

Marmosets in the Ramat Gan safari park, Israel. Marmosets are highly active, living in the upper canopy of forest trees, feeding on insects, fruit and leaves. They live in family groups of three to 15, consisting of one to two breeding females, an unrelated male, their offspring and occasionally extended family members and unrelated individuals

The emerald green disc on the tail feather of the king bird of paradise which are used in a courtship ritual. The bird was seen in the extinct
Mount Bosavi volcano in Papua New Guinea, where scientists, cavers and wildlife film-makers ventured in search of rare animals and birds

A crowned solitary eagle flies to its trainer before being released, after going through a rehabilitation programme at the Buenos Aires zoo. Less than 1,000 crowned solitary eagles remain in the world as of 2004, landing them on the list of most endangered species in South America, according to Buenos Aires zoo's Raptor Birds Rescue and Conservation Project

A painted lady butterfly. Scientists believe they have solved the long-standing mystery of where painted lady butterflies go in winter – with the help of Butterfly Conservation's monitoring scheme, in which members of the public registered sightings online. It has produced 12,000 reports of the butterflies from the UK and across Europe since the beginning of the year. The insects were seen around the Channel coasts of Cornwall, Devon, Sussex and Kent and arriving back in the Mediterranean and north Africa

A male polar bear carries the head of a polar bear cub it killed and cannibalized in an area about 300 km (186 miles) north of the Canadian town of Churchill in this picture taken November 20, 2009. Climate change has turned some polar bears into cannibals as global warming melts their Arctic ice hunting grounds, reducing the polar bear population, according to a U.S.-led global scientific study on the impacts of climate change.